Global Health: Three Issues to Watch During Summer 2016

Another academic year is coming to an end. Thousands of Dalhousie University students are heading home for the summer months, but that doesn’t mean the global health learning has to end! We hope you continue your interest in global health, and to make things easier, we have compiled a list of three global health issues that we think will be “hot topics” during the summer heat. Look out for these issues in the media, in your travels, and even in your own back yard.

Zika virus

Zika virus has dominated global health news in 2016, and its coverage in the media will only grow with the Rio Olympics taking place in the country at the center of the outbreak – Brazil. This event, to be held in August 2016, will draw hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world – from athletes, to coaches, to spectators. Although mosquito control efforts in Brazil have been scaled up enormously in recent months, the risk of infection still exists [1]. Whether, and to what extent, Zika virus will spread to other countries through infected travelers remains to be seen.

Eradicating polio

Poliomyelitis, often referred to as polio, is a distant memory in most of the world. Since 1988, when the Global Polio Eradication Initiative was formed, polio case numbers have decreased by more than 99%. A cost-effective, oral polio vaccine (OPV) exists, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative is on a mission to ensure that every child, worldwide, is immunized. There are currently only two countries where polio transmission has not been stopped: Afghanistan and Pakistan. With only 98 cases reported in 2015, eradicating polio in the near future is a very real possibility. Expect eradication efforts to go into overdrive this summer, in what will hopefully be the final push to make this disease history [2].

Mental health

Global health has its origins in targeting infectious disease threats, such as TB, HIV and malaria. However, the field of global health has grown to encompass so much more: from health systems, to non-communicable diseases. Expect mental health to receive increased attention in the months, and years, to come. One in four people in the world will be affected by a mental or neurological disorder during their lifetime, and 450 million people are currently suffering from such conditions [3]. The United Nations has recognized the importance of mental health by including it in the new set of 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [4]. The World Health Organization and the World Bank presented to ministers of finance and development agencies on the expected economic, health and social returns from investing in mental health services in Washington DC earlier this month [5]. Important discussions are happening on this topic, let’s hope that policy action begins to take shape this summer.